WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1858
r. But, sir, there is a political influence growing upon the country in connection with the Army which I described the other day. Its inception is at the Military Academy. The inmates of that insti- tution are the bantlings of the public. They are nursed, fostered, and cherished, by the Government; and when they graduate they must be provided with places in the Army. It is their vocation by education, and they must be provided for; the Army must be increased to accommodate the number of graduates whom the Military Academy may turn out annually. Places must be made in the regular Army to supply with positions the cadets who graduate at that institution. The danger is, that, as they multiply and increase, such will be the political influence disseminated through society that it will become a general infection, ruinous to the liberties of the country, and to the deliberations of the Congress of the United States. This is the danger which I appre- hend from the growth of the regular Army. I have bestowed some thought upon military matters. I have had some connection with the Army. My honorable friend from Kentucky [Mr. Crittenden], for whom I feel so much kindness, and, if he will permit me to say so, I will add even veneration- for when I was in a subordinate station in the Army, he was in this Chamber a Senator-has misapprehended my training as a soldier. My service has been in the regular A1·my-never in the militia. Before I attained to adult years, I enlisted a private soldier in the regular Army, the old seventh regiment. There I learned the rudiments of soldiership. For six months I was in the ranks, and I learned my duty there. Obedience was inculcated, and I im- bibed readily the instruction accompanying it. I was then pro- moted an ensign, and every step of rank I acquired from that time, until I ceased to be an officer in any army, I acquired by dint of service. My promotions were purchased by what I deemed a fit recompense in service. It was alone in the regular Army that I was instructed-not in the militia. Five years of my soldier drilling was in the old regular regime--in the seventh, the thirty- ninth, and the first regiments. I learned, whilst there, to appre- ciate properly the regular Army duties of a soldier. I learned, too, that he was better capacitated for command when it was conferred upon him for meritorious conduct, than if he had gratuitously received it without learning the duty of a sub- ordinate, or to pay obedience to a superior. Thus it was inculcated most instructively to me. It was not merely the result of obser- vation, but in the school of experience I was taught.
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